''Grizzly Man'' is a 2005 American documentary film by German director Creator/WernerHerzog and featuring a musical score from Music/RichardThompson. It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast, wildlife activist, and aspiring documentarian Timothy Treadwell.

For ''Grizzly Man'', Herzog used sequences extracted from more than 85 hours of video footage shot by Treadwell during the last five years of his life, and conducted interviews with Treadwell's family and friends, as well as bear and nature experts. Herzog also narrates, and offers his own interpretations of the events. In his narration, he depicts Treadwell as a disturbed man who may have had a death wish toward the end of his life, but also refuses to condemn him for this.----!!Tropes associated with ''Grizzly Man'':

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: A family of foxes is shown to allow Treadwell to feed and pet them, and the cubs often follow him around. The bears, naturally, avert this. And for all his enthusiasm, Treadwell appears to be aware of that.* ApocalypticLog: Timothy's last tape, depicting his and Amy's death.* BearsAreBadNews: Well, not at first.* BerserkButton: Treadwell gets uncharacteristically upset and profane when a fox steals his hat. And later it gets worse when he goes on an unnerving rant about poachers.* BetterAsFriends: Timothy and Jewel remained close even after they broke up. There was apparently no bitterness or tension over the break-up because Jewel said that she missed both Timothy ''and'' Amie.* BrokenPedestal: Before the movie and his death, Timothy Treadwell was well-liked and respected amongst many animal-rights groups and people. He was always seen as being a very likeable and nice guy. The documentary shows what he was really like.... and it's not nice.* BrutalHonesty: A pilot who was at the scene pulls out no punches on his summation of Timothy. He points out that all things considered, Tim was more than likely delusional, possibly mentally handicapped, and, in the pilot's opinion, brought his death upon himself.* CloudCuckooLander: "I can ''feel'' the poop! It's warm! It just came from her butt! This was just inside of her. My girl! ''I'm touching it!''...Everything about them is perfect!"** Treadwell really took this up a notch. Wildlife experts who have experience with bears are invariably astonished that he was able to get so close to them, and that his fatal mauling did not come ''years'' earlier. Some of them are of the opinion that the bears themselves were so confused by his behavior that they simply did not know what to do. There was nothing in their instinctive behavior responses on how to react to a creature that approached them openly, did not flee, did not react to their warning signals or ''actually approached closer to them when they did'', shook his fist at them, and spoke to them in a sing-song voice.* ClusterFBomb: Recording at the end of one summer, Tim is attempting to sum up his experiences of the past few months, but abruptly breaks into a profane, frustrated rant about poachers, tourists, the government and the wildlife services. It goes on for several minutes, almost none of which Herzog cuts out.* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Tim ''[[AvertedTrope wasn't]]''. But since 19 he pretended to be one to fake a MysteriousPast, and eventually had his name legally changed (Treadwell, although a name in his family tree, wasn't his own).* DoesNotLikeGuns: Treadwell made a point on never carrying a gun and [[HarsherInHindsight said he would rather die than harm a bear]]. He even refused to carry bear repellent because he felt deeply disturbed after using it on a bear once.** It crosses into TearJerker territory when you realize that a bear repellent could've [[spoiler: very well saved his and his girlfriend's lives when a bear invaded their tent...]]* DoomedExpedition: Herzog loves this trope.* DontGoInTheWoods: Of bear country in Alaska during certain times of year.* FauxAffablyEvil: Timothy interprets some friendly messages left for him by tourists in this manner, believing them all to be death threats.* ForegoneConclusion: Unfortunately (and not predictably).* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early in the documentary, Treadwell is shown explaining that the most dangerous bear would be an older male who desperately needed food. Near the end, Herzog shows footage of what could have been the bear that killed him, and it was an older male that appeared to be desperately searching for food.** In an earlier clip, Treadwell is shown befriending the bears, trying to pet them, and recording them walking. It's all harmless and fun, set to a relaxing song and with the monologue about how much beauty he recorded in the very beginning. Then one of the bears knocks Treadwell over and the music stops.* FriendToAllLivingThings: Treadwell could apparently play with bear cubs... while their mother was watching. * HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Tim goes on a painfully awkward monologue about how he wishes he was gay, but isn't.* HeroicSacrifice: The coroner who examined the remains of Tim and Amie posits that Tim tried to distract the bear so that Amie could escape. If this was the case then he was tragically unsuccessful.* {{Hypocrite}}: Tim routinely insulted tourists, which he considered akin to poachers... despite the fact he came into contact with the bears for the first time as a tourist himself. He also considered that the park rangers' plane that flew over the area ''twice a month'' was harassing the bears.** One particularly telling scene features him waxing rhapsodic over the corpse of a fox about how sacred all life is...then swatting a fly away from the fox's eye without any sense of irony.* ItsAllAboutMe: Don't appear on camera, I'm supposed to be alone here! [[ThirdPersonPerson It's Tim Treadwell]], the kind warrior! I'm the only one here! I'm the only one protecting these bears!** Also, despite the fact that he had his girlfriend with him, he never mentioned her in his journal entries and she only appeared three times on-camera, once while crossing a river from afar.* {{Jerkass}}: Tim, who created a fake backstory as an orphan, was a horrible hypocrite, and a paranoid extremist who ended up killing himself and his girlfriend. Most interviewees share this opinion along with thinking of him as an IdiotHero, and the pilot who was at the scene comes right out and calls him "retarded".* LemonyNarrator: Werner Herzog, who alternates between praising Timothy for his ability to capture such beautiful footage, and mourning what he perceived as Timothy's poor judgement.* MeetCute: Treadwell's ex-girlfriend, Jewel Palovak, told Herzog that they met when they both got in trouble at work on the same day, him for doing a SillyWalk in front of customers and her for accidentally starting a small fire. Their relationship didn't become romantic until sometime later, but the incident made them fast friends on the spot.* MotorMouth: Tim had a bit of one.* MountainMan: Timothy saw himself as such despite having no training whatsoever.* NatureIsNotNice: Herzog appears to be of this opinion, though he doesn't condemn Treadwell for thinking otherwise. The fact that he survived amongst wild bears for thirteen years suggests Treadwell may have had a point... although his not living to see a ''fourteenth'' rather undermines it.* NeverFoundTheBody: Harshly averted. Treadwell's severed head, spine, and arm were found, with the watch still ticking on it, along with a ribcage that may have been Amie's. And then, once the authorities killed the bear that ate him, they found the rest of him (and Amie) inside it. Have fun sleeping.* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The bear that killed Tim was killed, along with a second bear that attacked the ranger party that was trying to recover his body. The interviewed experts also point out that rather than "protecting" the bears and foxes as Tim claimed, his continuous presence there just made the animals less inclined to avoid humans, and so ''more'' likely to be killed by poachers, or attack campers for their food.** In the park's 85-year history, there were no incidents of poaching, or even any evidence to suggest it. Just one year after his death, three bears were poached in the park (admittedly, they were in a different part of the park, but it's not impossible they were the same bears). Similarly, his and Amie's deaths were the only fatal bear attacks in the park's history.* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: Treadwell strongly believed this about grizzlies, but he turned out be only half-right: eating whatever living creatures it can catch and kill -- including people -- is instinctual behavior for a grizzly and not "evil" as we know it, but the fact that they can and will eat people is ''perfectly'' understood by the overwhelming majority.** Considering the murderous grizzly was a rogue bear, meaning it did not know Treadwell, and generally, rogue bears tend to be sociopathic among grizzlies.* NothingIsScarier: Werner Herzog is filmed listening to the audio recording of Treadwell's death. There's no music for this scene, and the audio of the tape cannot be heard, but Herzog turns visibly pale while listening to it, and when he removes the headphones, his hands are trembling. Treadwell's closest friend, Jewel Palovak, is watching the whole time. After Herzog asks her to turn off the tape, he just looks at her for a moment. The viewer cannot see Herzog's face, but Palovak can... and she breaks down crying, whispering "They said it was bad." Herzog tells her, "You must never listen to this tape... If you don't destroy it, it will just be an ElephantInTheRoom for the rest of your life."** According to those who have heard it, the most disturbing part isn't the attack at all, it's hearing Amie scream as she is left alone in the woods as Tim is dragged off to be eaten, she stands there and screams, and it's made even worse as the bear then comes back...** Herzog does say that if we were to hear it, we'd hear -- aside from the dying screams -- Treadwell telling his girlfriend to run and save herself, and said girlfriend apparently trying to defend herself with a frying pan.* {{Retirony}}: The couple was scheduled to depart the morning after their attack, and Amie was supposed to get a new job and possibly leave the whole living-among-grizzlies thing the next week.** There is also a short clip from ''The Late Show'' where DavidLetterman interviewed him and jokingly asked if [[FunnyAneurysmMoment Tim would eventually get eaten by a bear.]] (This clip is only in the theatrical version as copyright issues caused it to be replaced with another interview segment for the video and television versions.)** Tim, in the very first clip, gives a monologue about how dangerous bears are, but says that he won't be killed by them -- then goes on to ''list several ways he COULD be killed''. It doesn't help that he says this after the monologue to Amie...---> "I can feel death on my fingers!"* SelfFulfillingProphecy: "I will die for these animals, I will die for these animals, I will die for these animals."* [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen She Who Must Not Be Seen]]: Amie only appears 3 times in the original 85 hours of video, has her face [[TheFaceless always covered]], and is [[TheVoiceless never heard]].* SnuffFilm: A camera recorded audio from the death of Treadwell and his girlfriend. Although Herzog listened to the tape, he offered little elaboration on it and urged its possessor to destroy it, though she ultimately did not. [[ExecutiveMeddling The executives actually wanted to use the audio in the film]], but Herzog refused to allow this on the grounds of taste. In later interviews, Herzog stated that the tape is still in the possession of its owner, who has not listened to it and who keeps it locked in a safe-deposit box. It has not been and mostly likely will never be released. * TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Werner Herzog, {{Crazy Awesome}} filmmaker extraordinaire, is almost driven to tears by listening to Treadwell's final moments.* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: Kathleen, a close friend of Tim, repeatedly says she loves Tim, and even Herzog points it out when he adds "She says she was just a close friend" doubtfully after she mentions she has his ashes.* WhamShot: Herzog states at the time that distant film of Amie is the only time she appears on film. Until some of the last footage Tim shot shows her very close (and looking very uncomfortable) next to a grizzly.* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Treadwell used to pretend to be Australian, and attempted to fake the accent. Whatever he ended up sounding like, it certainly wasn't Australian.----